Toledo Trust PBA National Championship

He first won this event in 1973 at Oklahoma City, then scored back-to-back victories at Downey, Calif., in 1974-75.

For a while it looked as though the string would come to a halt. The manner in which the 44-year-old Anthony won this one left competitors and onlookers, along with a vast national television audience (ABC Sports), in virtual disbelief.

After, four frames, Anthony had missed two and converted one split and trailed defending Firestone Tournament of Champions winner Mike Durbin by 25 pins. In Anthony's own words, "I just couldn't believe I could get behind a bowler like Durbin and still have a chance to get back in it."

But get back in it he did. Durbin left a 4-9 split which he did not convert, bringing Anthony within 12 pins. Anthony then uncoiled five game-ending strikes and to claim the $38,000 Toledo Trust check, for a total of $87,000 won over the past three years.

Anthony was the top qualifier for the ABC-televised finals, and was forced to wait until Durbin, Roy Buckley, Kevin Gillette and Mike Truitt battled for the right to meet him.

Gillette eliminated Truitt, 216-181, and Buckley turned the tables on Gillette, 235-190. Durbin then rolled to a fine, 244-213, victory over Buckley to get a shot at Anthony.

Toledo and the PBA National Championship have special meaning for Anthony, having broken the $1 million mark in career earnings here in 1982.

Earl Anthony continued his incredible dominance of the PBA National Championship by winning the $200,000 Toledo Trust-sponsored event at Imperial Lanes for the third straight year and an unprecedented sixth time since 1973.

Anthony's championship victim in his onslaught on the PBA record books was Mike Durbin, 210-183.

With his latest triumph, his string at Toledo's spacious Imperial Lanes reached three in a row, a feat no other person has approached in the event's 24-year history. But for Anthony it is the second time in his illustrious career that he has won three consecutive PBA National Championships

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